Lesson 6 — Activity 3: Helping Sentences Make Sense

You know that the elements that make a complete sentence are a subject and a predicate. You also know that you need to add information and details to your sentences to make them more interesting to your reader or listener.

Sometimes this additional information makes sentences more difficult to understand.

In this activity, you will look at three very common errors in writing sentences.

Thinking about making sentences that make sense!

Sentence Fragment

A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence.

When you are writing a sentence, make sure that it expresses a complete idea.
If it only has part of an idea, see if you can combine it with another sentence in your writing to complete the idea.

Here is an example of a sentence and a sentence fragment:

I enjoy playing many sports. Including football, hockey, basketball, and skiing.

You can see that the second sentence does not contain a complete idea. It could, however, be joined with the first sentence to create a clear and informative sentence, as in the following:

I enjoy many sports, including football, hockey, basketball, and skiing.

Pronoun Agreement

You know that a pronoun replaces a noun, so you have to make sure that your pronouns are used carefully so that it is clear what noun the pronoun is replacing.

Here is an example of a sentence that is confusing due to the way the pronoun is used:

I was riding my bike when I hit a tree, but luckily it wasn’t damaged.

Can you tell whether the pronoun “it” in the example above is talking about the bike or the tree? It is very hard to tell. The sentence would be clearer if in this case you didn’t use a pronoun, as in the following:

I was riding my bike when I hit a tree, but luckily I didn’t damage my bike.

Verb Tense

You know that verbs are the words that express the action that takes place. When you are writing, be sure to use a consistent verb tense.
Verb tense refers to whether you are describing events in the past, the present, or the future.
It can be confusing for a reader if you use different verb tenses to tell about events that are taking place at the same time (past, present, or future).

Here is an example of a sentence that is confusing because the verb tense is not consistent:

The rain was pouring down when suddenly a clap of thunder shakes the house.

You can see that the verbs in italics do not agree with each other: “The rain was pouring down ...” is written in the past tense; “... a clap of thunder shakes the house” is written in the present tense. They should be written in the same tense to be clearer:

Past tense → The rain was pouring down when suddenly a clap of thunder shook the house.

-or-

Present tense → The rain is pouring down when suddenly a clap of thunder shakes the house.